color help

rogerchester

I am trying to work on some portraits of my daughter . Need some help with what i should be working on. Like posing and exposer. What about soft focus should this be done in photoshop or is it better to get a filter.

1
<a href="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/9128777_7vbZz#608577617_8B3jj-A-LB"><img src="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/IMG4252/608577617_8B3jj-M-1.jpg"></a&gt;

2
<a href="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/9128777_7vbZz#608578524_E8Avb-A-LB"><img src="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/IMG4258/608578524_E8Avb-M-1.jpg"></a&gt;

3
<a href="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/9128777_7vbZz#608581503_pmKuA-A-LB"><img src="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/IMG4286/608581503_pmKuA-M-1.jpg"></a&gt;

4
<a href="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/9128777_7vbZz#608577837_gKYDF-A-LB"><img src="http://r-prescott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Loren/IMG4253/608577837_gKYDF-M-1.jpg"></a&gt;

craig_d

I think of these shots #3 is the best. There's a nice abstract composition there, with her vertical figure standing next to the semi-circle of the wheel, connected to it by her angled arm, and the colors are nice.

One thing I strongly suggest is that when posing, she keep her lips closed as long as she has braces. The shiny metal on her teeth makes her look disturbingly like some sort of murderous cyborg disguised as a cute little girl. This is particularly apparent in the close-ups.

Your exposures generally look good; maybe a little bright, but not much. #2 looks a bit dark, probably because your camera's auto-exposure calculations were thrown off by the white wall.

Personally I tend to favor doing things in-camera where feasible, rather than resorting to a lot of Photoshop effects. Since I shoot RAW all the time, I don't worry about white balance or sharpening in-camera, but stuff like focus and filters I would prefer to do optically rather than in software. So I'd suggest that if you want soft focus, get a filter or lens for it rather than faking it afterwards. Canon's EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus lens does a good job and it's not expensive. There is also the option of buying an f/1.4 lens and shooting it wide open, which not only gives you insanely shallow DOF (watch your focus!) but also usually adds in some spherical aberration for free.

zoomer

These aren't bad at all.
Watch your backgrounds lines going through her head are to be avoided.

Strongly disagree with the comments about braces. She is a cute young lady, photograph her as she is, absolutely do not tell her to not smile and show her braces, they go through enough trauma about that without it coming from adults that should know better.

Colors and exposure look pretty good, the second one needs a little bump because she is back in the shadows looks like the exposure was set for the wall.

Not exactly what you mean by soft focus but no you do not want to use a filter on the camera for it. All that stuff can be done in processing if you feel you must.

craig_d

zoomer wrote:

Not exactly what you mean by soft focus but no you do not want to use a filter on the camera for it. All that stuff can be done in processing if you feel you must.

If you don't know what he means by "soft focus", how can you say whether it should be done with a filter or lens as opposed to Photoshop?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_focus

This is a traditional optical effect. Faking it after the fact is possible but may not produce quite the same result.

Qarik

1st of pretty girl you got there! braces are fine. no need to hide them..they are part of her in this period of her life so she needs to OWN them!

Exposure looks okay except for number 2 which needs a bump. #3 is the winner for me for the color and composition.

Caspian

#3 is my favorite. This site really doesn't do it justice. When I see it on your site, the colors are more vibrant and it looks great at 8x10. 1 & 4 are nice too.